This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only

A new company called FAccess promises to automate the work of proposing an annuity purchase by boiling everything down to a client questionnaire.

Advisors interview their clients and send in the finished worksheet. Then FAccess feeds the answers into its database of all the annuity products out there and spits out a full report on up to three top options.

The report is already formatted for client review and also serves as a record of exactly how the advisor explains the benefits and drawbacks of each choice.

In an area of the industry that combines the potential for confusion with financial incentives to simply pick a high-commission product, it's nice to see someone trying to standardize the process.

FAccess makes its money on a subscription basis -- starting at $100 a month -- and so has no vested interest in any of the products in its universe.

What it really seems to be is a next-generation version of Morningstar's database, only one that addresses specific client needs.